The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children adopted by the UN as part of the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime has provided the most globally recognized definition of trafficking in persons since it was signed in Palermo in 2000. It reads:

“‘Trafficking in persons’ shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs”

To learn more, visit the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime’s page on trafficking.